Vertical Bandsaw Vibration

There are a number of reasons why vibration may occur during the use of a bandsaw machine. The saw blade speed and the types of saw blades being used, if incorrect in either case, have the tendency to cause vibration. The tooth pitch and speed rate need to be adjusted for the materials being cut in order to avoid vibration from happening.

Vibration may occur during a break-in process, or if the saw blade is tripped on the work piece. Decrease speed during break-in and slowly increase the feed rate to help prevent vibration from occurring.

Other issues to consider include things like wheel alignment, blade guides, and blade tension can all have an effect on the bandsaw, among others.

Bandsaw vibration can result in a crooked cut, which isn’t desirable, so the issue needs to be addressed. Here are a few ways to troubleshoot your bandsaw machine for vibration causes.

Remove the drive belt and turn on the machine

This will indicate whether or not the cause for vibration is coming from the motor, or because of the way the motor was mounted. If vibration still occurs after fixing either issue, try the next step:

Put the drive belt back on and remove the blade

Run the machine, and if vibration occurs, it may be due to the tension of the drive belt, or the alignment of the pulley, and/or the lower wheel (bearings and/or the balance). Check each, run the machine, and see if the problem doesn’t fix itself. If after adjustments are made at this point and the problem still exists, move on to the next step:

Loosen the top wheel nut

It could be that the nut is simply screwed on too tight. Spin the upper wheel and when it stops, mark the bottom of the wheel with a magic marker. Spin and mark again. Do this several times.
If the marks are all spaced close together, it indicates that the wheel is heavy and will cause vibration. If the marks are randomly spaced all over the wheel, then the wheel is properly balanced and the bearings are fine. This isn’t the cause for vibration.
Mount the blade back onto the saw, tension it, and track it, but this time, move the blade guides and thrust bearings so that they do not touch the blade. If the vibration continues, try the next step:

Check all of the moving parts

The problem might be the saw’s blade (a bad weld on a saw blade can cause vibration and/or twisting)
Dull saw blades should be replaced as well.
If using rubber tires, they may be out of round (the tire might be ripped and/or have lumps). Replacing the tire might help.

These are all suspected reasons for vibration occurring in bandsaw usage, and hopefully one of them will be useful in deriving a solution to the problem.